Africa

One of the strongest El Niño events ever recorded has placed the lives of 26.5 million children at risk of malnutrition, water shortages and disease in ten countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) has reported.

In our series of letters from African journalists, Joseph Warungu takes advantage of the temporary lull in tear gas to examine the rocky political climate in Kenya.

In our series of letters from African journalists, novelist and writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani looks at how the latest religious tension in Nigeria is playing out in what people wear to school.

Tunisian security forces are patrolling tourist spots and a state of emergency is still in place, one year after a gunman opened fire on a beach, killing 38 tourists - 30 of them British.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is deeply concerned about the current escalation of violence between the Sudan&#39s People Liberation Army (SPLA) and armed groups, in Wau town and surrounding areas, in South Sudan.

The acting United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Libya, Dr. Syed Jaffar Hussain expressed deep concerns at recent attacks in Benghazi that put medical facilities at risk and urged all parties to take all feasible precautions to prevent casualties among patients and medical personnel.

Despite some recent political progress in South Sudan, a deteriorating food and nutrition situation, economic decline and sporadic violence are continuing to significantly impact the humanitarian needs within the country, the United Nations food relief agency cautioned today.

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Evelyn Amony was abducted at age 11 from her village in northern Uganda and then forced to become the “wife” of Joseph Kony – one Africa’s most feared warlords, infamous for his casual brutality, and leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, the violent rebel group better known as the LRA.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today it is providing agricultural and livelihood assistance to affected host communities and displaced people in the Lake Chad Basin as a result of massive population displacements and insecurity that are putting livelihoods and food security at high risk.

Pro-government forces are making gains in the IS-held port city of Sirte - the BBC meets an army of young men.

Images of Eritrea by the BBC's Mary Harper.

In our series of letters from African journalists, Ghanaian writer Elizabeth Ohene considers the importance of teaching science.

Egyptian giants Al Ahly suffer a shock defeat away to Zesco United of Zambia as the group phase of the African Champions League kicks off.

The team bus of Nigerian Premier League side Ikorodu United is involved in a fatal accident en route to Makurdi for a fixture against Lobi Stars.

June 17, 2015 (RAJA) – The governor of the newly created Lol state [Western Bahr el Ghazal], Rizik Zachariah Hassan, on Friday accused forces of the opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) of allegedly carrying out the recent deadly attack on his state capital, Raja, which led to the brief fall of the administrative headquarters.

Western Bahr el Ghazal governor Rizik Zachariah Hassan (FILE)

Governor Hassan said the forces that captured the state capital on Wednesday were members of the SPLA-IO under the leadership of the First Vice President, Riek Machar, adding that their motive behind the attack was to gain recognition of presence in Bahr el Ghazal region.

“Their motive is to prove to the international community that they are around in Bahr el-Ghazal that is their only strategic motive,” Governor Hassan, who narrowly escaped, told Sudan Tribune on Friday in his first public statement since he deserted the state capital on Wednesday.

He said several officers and soldiers, including some of his personal bodyguards were killed during the attack.

“From my personal bodyguards, I lost seven of them that is what happened. We withdrew and we managed to take hold and liberate the town after one hour right now we have taken full control of Raja town,” said Hassan.

Meanwhile Raja county commissioner, Alamin Janga, said another motive of the attackers was a protest against the establishment of Lol state which put together people of Dinka Aweil and non-Dinka tribes of Raja under one state.

“The motive of this group is that they do not want Lol state, they want a separate state of Raja alone,” he said.

Commissioner Janga said the group voluntarily withdrew from the town after looting most of the town's valuable including 30 million South Sudanese pounds from bank, contradicting governor's statement and that of the army's spokesperson, Brig Lul Ruai Koang, that they liberated the town by repulsing the attackers.

Raja county commissioner also said the attackers have gone away with 75 prisoners after they broke into Raja prison and released them, adding some of the inmates were serving a sentence of up to 20 years.

Till now, he added, it is not safe for civilians to return to Raja town, saying “all humanitarian workers have yesterday been evacuated from Raja to Awiel.”

On Thursday, the SPLM-O's undersecretary for information and public relations national committee, William Ezekiel, condemned the attack, but said their forces were not involved.

Ezekiel denied the SPLA-IO forces have carried out the attack and called on the parties to establish cantonment of the forces to control what he called “unknown gunmen” from destabilizing the peace implementation process.

(ST)

June 17, 2016 (JUBA) - The governor of Lol state, one of the newly created controversial 28 states in South Sudan through a presidential decree against the constitutional 10 states, has relocated to Nyamellel town in Aweil West area.

Rizik Zachariah Hassan, Governor of Lol state (UN photo)

The move for the relocation of governor Rizik Zechariah Hassan, followed the attack in which armed men overran Raja town, the administrative headquarters of the new state, after it came under heavy gunfire on Wednesday, forcing him and his cabinet members to flee in disarray.

The state capital fell under the control of the unknown gunmen, which the government described as “bandits” and “criminals” before they withdrew in the evening of Wednesday.

In statements to Sudan Tribune, Governor Hassan, who confirmed fleeing to Khor Shamam, an area which the Sudanese rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement have been allegedly been using as one of their bases near Raja, later returned to Raja town where he met government forces who eventually assisted him to leave the area again in the same evening of Wednesday.

He was given military escorts to accompany him pass through a thick forest, following the route passing through Deimzuber and Awada areas, before crossing to Aroyo town, the administrative headquarters of Aweil south area which falls under the administrative jurisdiction of the newly created neighbouring Aweil state.

Raja, which is the state capital, according to officials accompanying the governor, was not yet safe, citing that the unknown gunmen could return any time.

Hassan reached Aweil town on Thursday where he was received by members of his government who had fled the attack earlier on Wednesday and walked to Nyamellel town which is under the jurisdiction of Raja state.

Officials close to him as well as some of his cabinet members were keen to underline that he wanted to stay in a territory under his administrative jurisdiction where he would initiate contacts with the president and other high ranking government officials and military officers in the country.

Governor Hassan, according to several of his aides, who were accompanying him, described him as having been “visibly tired and exhausted.”

Speaking in an exclusive interview on Friday, governor Hassan confirmed to Sudan Tribune that he was in Nyamellel town preparing to brief communities in the area about what transpired in Raja.

He said security situation in Raja was now calm and under control of the government forces following a military takeover of the town.

The governor described the armed men who carried out the attack in which government officials were targeted as an act of anti-government and peace. He said armed men had looted the town and displaced many civilians but were now returning to their homes after assurances from the government forces.

“The security situation is now under control. The attack which took place on Wednesday was carried out by anti-government forces but they have been repulsed. The town is now under the control of our forces. The civilians are now returning to their homes and everything will be okay. Yes, they have looted the town and broke the banks,” he said.

(ST)

Sylvia Pankhurst is well known for her links with the suffragette movement but she had strong ties with Ethiopia as well, as James Jeffrey reports.